Photograph by: Handout
, Leigh Beisch

While she's quoting her friend and fellow chef, Fergus Henderson (author of The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating) her explanation also reflects the practical, no-nonsense approach we have come to expect from the Australian born, Toronto-based chef and author of two other first-rate cookbooks and reference works, Fat and Bones. The woman doesn’t mince words. Kidney, maybe, or even udder. But not words.

In her latest book, McLagan focuses on the bellies, brains, cheeks, and hocks of the animals that make up our diet. There’s a lot of fuss about expensive racks and loins of pigs, cows and sheep. But some of the best flavours, textures and price points can be found in the less glamorous parts of the animal, including tongues, trotters and testicles.

That’s one good reason for using odd bits, the things left behind when the sexier bits of the beast have been harvested. But there’s also a moral issue, says McLagan.

“I think it’s absolutely wrong to throw that part of the animal out,” she says in a phone interview from Paris, where she lives when she’s not in Toronto. “It’s good protein that we’re wasting.”

In an ideal world, says McLagan, animals should be raised in a humane fashion, and slaughtered with the least amount of pain and anxiety. Then eaten, all up.

“If you don’t want the pig’s ear on your plate, that I understand,” she continues. “But you can use them in many ways. You can put half a pig’s foot in a stew, and it gives you a fabulous rich, unctuous sauce. For God’s sake, don’t throw them away.”

That aversion to waste is also part of what’s behind the move by many chefs, and not just in Paris, to prepare recipes using odd bits, or offcuts. In Edmonton, chef Daniel Costa of Corso 32, says he and sous chef Ben Chalmers like to get creative with the discards.

“We try to incorporate lots of things like liver and bones,” says Costa, “We never let anything go to waste.”

Corso 32, recently named one of the best new eateries in the country by Air Canada's enRoute magazine, has a pork cheek terrine on the menu right now, and is working on a pasta dish with cured pork jowl.

“The pork jowl, it has a delicate flavour after you cure it, and you can really taste the pork,” says Costa.

Odd bits used to be common in our diet. That we no longer know our shanks from our sweetbreads is a reflection of the distance we have travelled since our ancestors considered themselves lucky to land prized parts such as tongues, feet and tails. We have lost food literacy, become lazy with our cooking, and are a long ways from the animals we eat. McLagan’s books are food history texts as well as recipe books, and a powerful reminder of where we have come from.

“That’s why odd bits is such a great topic,” reflects McLagan. “People ate those foods, but they have fallen out of memory and use.”

A warning: parts of McLagan’s book are not what I would call appetizing. If you’re put off by the notion of prepping a pig’s head, or simply don’t have a small propane torch for burning off its hair, you’d best skip the section on advanced head cheese. Still, along with the exotic recipes for Fried Pig’s Feet Terrine, there are also numerous less-intimidating dishes in Odd Bits, such as a gorgeous veal shank with saffron, a rich oxtail ravioli, or hearty spiced lamb ribs with beans and spinach. If you want to kick it up a notch, tongue or heart can also be readily sourced from your local butcher and even many supermarkets. Udders, mind you, are harder to come by.

Odd Bits offers solid instruction not only on the preparation, but the potential of many unfamiliar meats.

“The heart is versatile. You can eat it quickly cooked, like a kebab, or you can eat it raw in a fabulous tartare. You can braise it slowly, so it’s meltingly tender. You can throw it in your beef stew ...(or) add it to a hamburger mix to give it a gamey taste,” says McLagan.

“And it’s cheap. So you can experiment without thinking it’s such an expensive cut to try. There are lots of ways to incorporate odd bits into your diet.”

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